Home for the Holidays
by notenoughpotter
Summary: My gift for the DE Christmas Exchange Prompt: Prompt: Damon and Elena are married, on the verge of divorce. They leave to go home a few days before Christmas. They have car trouble in a tiny remote town surrounded by mountains. Christmas magic commences.
1. Chapter 1

Prompt: Damon and Elena are married, on the verge of divorce. They visited with their parents, trying to act civil but knowing their marriage is over, they leave to go home a few days before Christmas. They have car trouble in a tiny remote town surrounded by mountains. Because the car parts needed for their car repair have to be shipped in, they're stuck in the town for several days. The town goes all out for the holiday, Christmas pageant, decorations, Christmas trees galore, you name it. The town's people take Damon and Elena under their wing so to speak. Somehow amidst the magic of this little town and the magic of Christmas, they realize that they still love each other too much to give up.

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Stefan, Caroline, alcohol use, mild language

* * *

Elena parked her car in front of the red bricked house. Night had long-since fallen. If not for the colorful Christmas lights adorning every other house on the street, she would have had difficulty fishing her house keys out of her purse. In better days, the door would have been unlocked—the house and its occupant ready to welcome her. That felt like a lifetime ago. As it was, she opened the gate to the white picket fence of what was once their dream home with one hand while keeping a tight grip on the keys with the other.

The realtor once convinced them this street was on the verge of a revival. Damon loved it because it was walking distance to his bar, and it was convenient to Elena's hospital. But like their marriage, the promised gentrification of the neighborhood hadn't quite worked out. Now, Elena was left with a house in a neighborhood in the midst of a holiday crime wave. She reached the front door, and her nerves were immediately set on edge by the thin ribbon of light peeking out from beneath the door. A sensible person would probably have turned around and gone back to the car or at least dialed 911—Elena was too tired for sensible. After a 12-hour shift that bled into almost 20 hours by the time she'd finished the emergency surgery on the toddler hit by a drunk driver, whoever was in the house could take whatever he could carry…once Damon moved out, there wasn't anything valuable left inside anyway.

The door swung open when she touched the knob, confirming her suspicions. Damn. Maybe whoever had broken in was gone by now. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket to report the robbery, and she swept her thumb over the keypad. Nothing. The battery had registered two percent as she left the hospital, but it had dwindled away to nothing during the drive home. Knocking on the neighbors' door at this time of night was just as likely to get her shot as walking in on intruders so inside the house she went, hoping what she found wouldn't be too bad.

Nothing seemed amiss apart from the lights being lit. She refused to look in the direction of the bay windows. In better years, a Christmas tree would be standing bright and proud in the little nook that seemed a perfect fit for a holiday tree. No matter how late she got home, Damon would have left the tree lit for her. Now it was just as empty as the rest of the house.

A pile of blankets littered the floor next to the couch—exactly as Elena had left them. She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept in the bedroom. The bed felt too big to sleep in it alone. Falling asleep while watching television was just easier, even if it was hell on her back. Maybe she should get a dog. Or two dogs. With the king-sized bed, she had plenty of room.

But her schedule wasn't fair to a dog.

It hadn't been fair to her husband.

Elena froze. Someone was in the kitchen…exactly where the phone was. Perfect.

Trying to remember all the self-defense skills she'd learned during the personal safety classes she'd taken back in college, she tensed her muscles, readying for a fight. She stepped around the corner and dropped her phone. "What are you doing here? Trying to scare me to death?"

Damon was lying sprawled across the kitchen table—one cheek resting on a pile of papers that hadn't been there when she'd left. It gave her some small measure of satisfaction that she apparently surprised him just as badly as he'd frightened her by leaving the front door open.

"Damn it, Elena, are you trying to give me a heart attack?" He blinked through heavy-lidded eyes while smoothing his hair away from his face in a movement she recognized as one he did when most unsettled. That made her feel a little better.

"I could say the same to you." Elena slid her bag off her shoulder and placed it on the counter in a move specifically intended to annoy Damon. "Why are you here?"

"You didn't return my phone calls."

"From today?"

"Mmm hmm." His blue eyes glanced in the direction of the clock. She'd once found those eyes mesmerizing, but too many times lately they'd simply been filled with scorn and anger, making it difficult to remember those days that felt like a lifetime ago. "Or I guess it's yesterday now."

"I didn't think you'd want me to call you at midnight."

"I was awake."

Elena felt the muscles in her neck stiffen. They couldn't even have a conversation about the time without it turning into an argument. "I didn't know that." She summoned the last increment of civility. "I was trying to be polite. What's so urgent?" If everyone's hearts were beating and no one was bleeding to death, she'd stopped categorizing anything as an emergency.

"The papers are ready for you to sign." Damon smoothed the stack of papers he'd been using as a pillow and slid them across the table in an obvious suggestion for her to look at them.

 _DIVORCE._

Elena just managed to read the single word before she felt her eyes tearing. She turned her back to Damon and his papers in a mixture of anger and embarrassment. This shouldn't be a surprise to her. They hadn't shared a roof in three months…not since that last argument when Damon left, slamming the door so hard he knocked their wedding portrait off the wall, shattering the glass.

It should have been a sign.

It was over.

 _They_ were over.

She'd always thought they'd have another chance. Give him enough time to cool down…he'd come back.

Just like he'd always done.

But he didn't come back. Not that time. Elena couldn't even remember what they'd been arguing about—maybe it was how late she'd stayed at work or it could have been about the house…again. All she could remember was standing there watching the light fade to orange to pink and to completely dark. It had happened on one of her rare days off. They'd been supposed to go to a nice dinner…take time to really talk…and he left. When the street lamps turned on, she'd gone to the kitchen cabinet and pulled out the dustpan to clean up the shattered glass. She didn't even cry. Not again. She'd run out of tears for Damon.

"Elena." Damon's voice was laced with impatience. He tapped his pen against the divorce papers.

He wanted her to sign them now? He wanted her to sign them now. "Damon, I'm so tired I can't even see straight. Tomorrow's Saturday. Can you give me a day or so?"

Damon sat rigid, appearing to be preparing to argue, but then his expression softened. "Sure. Take your time. Read them over. I think it's a fair agreement. I tried to make it fair." He ran his fingers through his hair. "Why don't you give them to me when I pick you up on Sunday…"

"Sunday?"

Impatient Damon had returned. "Don't tell me you forgot. Christmas? We're going home to Mystic Falls. Damn it, Elena, it was your idea not to tell them."

Elena held a hand in front of her to stop the tirade. "I'm off. I remember now. It's just…it's been a long day, Damon." Now it was her turn to run her fingers through her hair. "And, no. I don't want to tell them. Caroline's already high risk. I don't want to do anything to risk the baby."

"Okay, then." Damon was on his feet, pushing his chair in beneath the table. "I'll see you Sunday." He shoved his hands into his pockets and walked past her. "Good night, Elena." He paused, switching his weight back and forth between his legs, "try to get some sleep."

"I will. Thanks." Elena watched as the door shut behind her husband and felt as exhausted as she'd ever been. Her next shift started in less than six hours. Without bothering to change clothes, she kicked off her shoes and collapsed onto the couch.

* * *

Elena had just finished placing a metallic bow on her last gift when a knock sounded at the door. She glanced at the clock on the cable box. Damon. Right on time, as always, and she was happy she'd taken the time to pack before going to bed last night. It was bad enough they had to share a car for the eight hour trip—at least she wasn't going to be responsible for getting them off to a late start.

She got to her feet, brushing her palms against her jeans. "Coming," she yelled as Damon started to knock again. If he'd come in unannounced on Friday, why couldn't he just open the door for himself now? "It's unlocked."

"In this neighborhood?" Damon's brows knit together as he stared back at her.

"You're the one who picked it." Elena could feel her blood pressure begin to rise. He was the one insinuating it was a bad neighborhood? She'd begged him to sell the house and move…and somehow she was the one who seemed to be ending up with the house. At least she thought she was getting the house. She hadn't had a chance to read the papers yet.

Or maybe she just didn't want to read them…didn't want to sign them. Signing them would be so final. She'd be admitting defeat. They'd be admitting defeat. They'd never given up on each other before—not when the bank made a mess of the loan application for the bar and almost destroyed their credit beyond repair, not when Elena was so exhausted in her final year of residency that she'd forgotten her own birthday, not when they went to the doctor expecting to hear a heartbeat but heard only silence instead.

They always survived.

Until they didn't.

"Ready?" Like so many other days recently, Damon had reverted to single-word questions.

"Yep." Elena found single-word answers safer too…less chance for someone to insinuate some type of veiled insult.

"What's that?" Damon pointed an accusing finger at the package wrapped with red paper covered with white and green polka dots. The "for Stefan" tag was clearly displayed next to the metallic bow.

"A present for your brother." Elena answered through gritted teeth. Damon had lost the ability to be civil with her in the room, but she didn't think he'd also lost the ability to read. She studied the man in the room with her. Hostility practically rolled off him. His shoulders were squared. A muscle in his jaw tensed. They were going to pretend they were happily married for the next four days.

This was never going to work.

"I got Stefan a present." Damon sounded like he was accusing her of violating some rule.

"Then he can have two." Elena answered as carefully as possible. It was too early in the trip for them to start fighting. "Are you ready? The weather said we might have snow on the way. I don't want to get stuck somewhere."

"Because being stuck with me is your worst nightmare." His tone was caustic. She didn't want to fight, but he clearly did.

"Because I want to see my family…our family…I want to get to Mystic Falls before tonight." Rather than waiting for a reply, she nestled the last of the packages in the oversized plastic Ikea bag she'd saved from a trip to the store they'd taken when they were first married. Damon's eyes fixed on the bag and a hint of something that looked like nostalgia colored his eyes for an instant before it was gone. Elena hefted the bag onto her shoulder and took hold of her new rolling suitcase she'd purchased while Christmas shopping since Damon had taken the rest of the luggage with him. "Let's go."

Without another word, Damon followed her out the front door, shutting it behind them before locking it and tugging the door twice to test the lock. "It's locked."

"Yes, it is," Elena answered. They'd done this same procedure every time they left a house or their apartment for the entire eight years they'd been married. She led the way down the brick pathway to his waiting car where Damon stood alongside her next to the trunk.

He popped the trunk open and eased the bag off the shoulder and placed it next to a similar bag spilling packages over the gray fabric. An unexpected look of concern came over his face as he took her rolling bag from her hand. His close inspection made Elena feel uneasy. "There's a pillow in the back seat. Thought you might want to sleep on the way. You…you look pretty tired."

He'd uttered the kind of comment that would have sparked an argument months ago, but Elena was too tired to argue. And he was accurate. During her last shift, one of the other doctors asked if she'd had a black eye. She'd brushed it off, explaining she was simply tired. His words had been enough to prove she wasn't doing enough to hide the circles deepening by the day.

She opened the back passenger door and pulled the pillow off the seat, cradling it to her chest. It smelled like fabric softener. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He surprised her again by coming around beside her and opening the door for her. She settled in the seat and closed her eyes. Sleep found her before they left the city. Two states later, a hand nudged her shoulder. "Probably want to eat something." Damon pressed a paper bag into her hand. "Cheeseburger and fries. No pickles."

"Did you eat?" Elena struggled to focus her eyes.

"About a half hour ago. Kept thinking you'd wake up." Damon steered with one hand on the wheel, and he glanced quickly at her. "You never stopped snoring."

"I don't snore."

Damon didn't try to stifle his laugh. "Yeah, you do." He looked over his shoulder and changed lanes behind a moving truck. "Eat your burger."

Elena ate in silence. Her lunch had gotten cool but not cold. She didn't care. She'd gotten accustomed to eating meals that weren't at their peak during shifts at the hospital. Once she finished her lunch, she was surprised to find her eyes still battling with her. Before she could identify the song on the radio, she'd nodded back off.

The car rocked to a stop. Damon took the keys from the ignition and sighed. "You ready?" His mood seemed as dark as the sky around them.

Elena didn't need the white Christmas lights lining the roof to identify the Salvatore house. She could recognize the circular driveway and the mass of trees in her sleep. "Sure."

"And you still want to do this?"

"Celebrate Christmas?"

Damon narrowed his eyes at her. "Pretend we're one big happy family."

Elena's throat tightened. She struggled to swallow. She didn't want to pretend. She wanted to be one big happy family. But that door closed a while ago. Stefan and Caroline didn't need to know that. Not yet. "Yeah." Before she could say more, a beam of light cut into the night. Stefan's profile appeared in the doorway.

"Merry Christmas!" Damon almost jumped out of the car, probably relieved to have an excuse to leave the tension within the car. Elena waited in her seat, struggling to find a convincing smile. She was thankful for the dim light.

"Have a good drive?" Stefan's words were muffled through her closed door.

"You're here!" Caroline's abundantly pregnant form threw the doorway into shadow. Elena didn't have to pretend to be happy to see her sister-in-law. A sharp pain filled her chest. Her sister-in-law, but for how much longer? Once she signed her name on the papers, what would become of her relationship with Caroline? What would Damon tell them? Would they blame her? Would they still even be friends?

She couldn't think about that now.

Tonight, she just wanted to enjoy being with family who wanted to be with her.

"Took you long enough."

Elena did a double-take at the familiar, teasing voice. "Jeremy?" A woman stepped up behind her little brother. "And Bonnie?" Unexpected tears filled her eyes. "You're here. Why didn't you tell me?"

Caroline giggled from behind her. "Merry Christmas." She wrapped Elena in an awkward hug. "You two are always too busy to come home. We have enough room. We thought it would be fun." Her head cocked to the side as she studied Elena's expression. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." Elena nodded, wiping the corner of her eye. "Just happy to see everyone." She took a step back. "I need to look at you. Come on, get in the light where I can see you." Elena was beyond happy to have a distraction. She cheerfully followed Caroline into the house where she was immediately surrounded by Jeremy and her other sister-in-law.

"What smells so good?" Damon asked from the hallway, his arms laden with both bags of presents.

Stefan followed with both sets of luggage. "Do you have to ask?"

"Did you make lasagna?"

"Mom's recipe."

The bags were quickly dealt with and the whole group was soon gathered around the table. Jeremy sat on one side of Elena and she'd been able to maneuver Caroline into the seat next to her. The blonde gave her a pointed look when the bottle of wine made the circle around the table and Elena filled her glass.

"You have no idea how much I envy you right now." Caroline stared at Elena's glass.

"Just a few more weeks." Elena held her glass in a mock-toast, regretting her choice of sitting so close to Caroline. For the second time in the hour, she felt herself in the too-sharp inspection of her oldest friend.

"We have to have a toast." Jeremy stood, holding his wine glass in the air. He nodded to everyone in turn. "After all, how often are we all together?" He tapped his glass against Elena's. "To family."

"To family." The words were echoed all around.

Idle chatter filled the room as the group ate together for the first time in years. The last time they'd all been gathered was for Jeremy and Bonnie's wedding. While they'd kept up to date with the comings and goings, at least most of them, the hours quickly slipped away while they recounted stories of Christmases past—first from around the table and later gathered around the massive fire in the hearth. Long after the clock struck eleven, Bonnie's eyes began to droop.

Caroline yawned and got to her feet. She glanced in Elena's direction. "Can you help me with the last of the dishes?" She picked up two abandoned mugs from the coffee table.

"I'll help." Stefan started to stand, but Caroline quickly cut him off.

"No, Elena can help." Caroline used a don't-question-me tone, and Stefan quickly sat back down. Using the mugs in her hands to gesture to Elena, she pointed at the rest of the dirty glassware before walking slowly toward the kitchen.

Not having a good excuse to avoid being alone with Caroline, Elena picked up the mugs in front of Bonnie and Jeremy and followed her sister-in-law into the kitchen. She tried to drop the dishes off and hurry out of the room, but Caroline blocked her path. "What's going on with you and Damon?"

Elena clutched at the counter for support. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't try to fool me." Caroline narrowed her eyes and took a step in Elena's direction, using the same intimidation strategy she once used as head cheerleader. "You've barely been within ten feet of each other. And he hasn't touched you once. That's not you two. Or at least it wasn't. He's never been able to keep his hands off you."

"We're not newlyweds anymore." Elena tried to laugh it off.

"Doesn't matter." Caroline wasn't buying it.

"Damon's just happy to see Stefan. He sees me all the time." Elena forced a smile. "And he knows I'm tired. Things have been busy at the hospital."

"You're sure?" Caroline still looked more than a little skeptical. "Promise me you're not lying."

"Things are fine, Caroline." She couldn't make the promise, and she hoped Caroline wouldn't notice.

"Have we given you two enough time?" Stefan rapped on the doorframe. "Or are you still trying to get a confession out of Elena?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Caroline shook her head and gave a half-smile in her husband's direction. "We just needed some time for some girl talk."

"You'll have more time in the morning." Stefan stepped closer to Caroline and rested a hand in the small of her back. "You're not getting enough sleep as it is. Let's call it a night."

Caroline yawned at the suggestion of sleep. "Don't blame me. Blame the fact that this one likes to jump on my bladder all night."

"Excuses, excuses." Stefan gave Caroline's shoulder a loving squeeze. "But it doesn't change the fact you're up three times a night." He stifled a yawn of his own. "And then I'm up three times a night."

Caroline turned to Elena and laughed. "That's because he keeps thinking I'm in labor," she spoke in a stage whisper loud enough for Bonnie and Jeremy to laugh from the living room. "The doctor says I have at least a week left."

"A week?" Bonnie came into the kitchen rubbing her hands with excitement. "Then you probably really do need to get some sleep." She motioned for Jeremy to follow her toward the stairs. "We'll see you in the morning."

"Good night." Jeremy gave a half-wave as he disappeared into the darkened stairwell.

Caroline turned back to Elena. "Damon carried your bags upstairs already. You're in his old room." She craned her neck, looking in the direction of the living room. "Where is Damon anyway?"

"He went upstairs about the same time the two of you went into the kitchen," Stefan answered. "I think the drive tired him out."

"Probably so," Elena agreed, not sure of what else to add. She didn't remember anything about the drive other than eating a cheeseburger halfway along the trip. "Goodnight you two. If the doctor's wrong, come and get me. I'm not going to miss being one of the first ones to meet my nephew if I'm in town."

"Nope." Caroline held up a hand to stop Elena mid-sentence. "No Christmas Eve babies. That's a horrible birthday—only thing that would be worse is a Christmas Day birthday. The doctor promised me a week, and this little guy isn't coming for one more week."

Elena paused with her hand on the bannister. "One more week. Understood." She laughed in spite of herself. "I just hope he knows the plan too." Elena pointed at Caroline's belly.

Caroline held up a finger in caution. "Don't speak it into the universe."

Elena laughed again. "You've got it. Nothing else from me." She turned away from the couple still standing in the kitchen but she could still hear Stefan whispering and Caroline laughing softly in reply. Caroline's optimism was impressive. Elena felt a second wave of laughter bubbling to the surface that instantly caught in her chest when she reached the top of the stairs.

They were staying in Damon's room. She had some good memories of that room…really good memories to be honest. And that's exactly why she didn't want to cross the threshold. The sound of a shower starting up carried into the hallway, bringing her a little relief. Maybe she could make it into the room and be asleep before Damon got out of the shower.

She hurried into the room and started digging her things out of her bag. She'd just found her toothbrush when the sounds of water stopped. Of course this would be the one day that Damon took a record-settingly short shower.

"Sorry." Damon walked into the room with a towel around his waist. "I thought you'd be talking with Caroline longer. I wanted to get out of your way."

"I had the same plan." Elena held up her supplies. "Guess the timing didn't work out."

"Guess not." Damon crossed the room and pushed the door fully shut. He waited until after latch clicked before speaking again. "I think it's going okay."

"Hardly." Elena rolled her eyes. "Caroline's already asked me if everything's okay with us."

"What did you tell her?"

"I lied." Elena could feel her heart speeding in her chest. "That was the plan, wasn't it?"

"Your plan." The familiar accusatory edge was back in his voice.

"The right plan." Elena had to fight the urge to throw her hairbrush at him. "You see how happy she is right now. How happy they all are. Do you really want to be the reason everyone gets upset?"

Damon looked down at the ground. "No. That's not exactly a great Christmas present."

"Exactly."

"So what are we doing wrong?" Damon dropped the towel and Elena turned away, feeling heat spreading to her cheeks.

She shrugged a shoulder. "Everything apparently. We didn't sit together at dinner. You sat on the couch tonight while I was on the floor by the fireplace." Her throat felt tight. "Neither one of us has touched each other since we've been here."

"Damn, maybe Caroline should be a cop too." Damon paused, and Elena could hear a suitcase's zipper. "You can turn around now." He waited for Elena to comply before continuing. "We'll just have to work harder. But that's a job for tomorrow."

Elena let out a long breath from between pursed lips. Tomorrow—the Mystic Falls holiday parade had always been the highlight of her year, but now it seemed like one more test to pass. She walked into the bathroom to change clothes and prepare for bed before returning to the bedroom. Damon had already gotten into bed, taking his once-familiar spot on the side next to the far window. While trying not to look at him, she circled the bed and grabbed a pillow then turning away from the welcoming mass of blankets.

"What are you doing?" Damon rolled onto his side, resting on an elbow.

Surely he wasn't that delusional. After living in separate quarters for so long, she couldn't share the bed, especially not tonight when her nerves already felt as raw as if they'd been rubbed by sandpaper. "I'm sleeping on the chair. It's big enough. It's not that different from the couch." She picked up the throw blanket draped across the arm of the oversized chair and made a make-shift bed. "It's just easier this way." She nestled under the single blanket and her head sank into the overstuffed pillow. Despite sleeping for hours on the way to Mystic Falls, she was asleep before Damon's breathing became regular.

* * *

Thanks for reading this first chapter in my story for the DE Exchange. I had a difficult time deciding whether or not to participate since I no longer watch the show, but it was equally hard to break this tradition. I know this wasn't very warm or fuzzy—my apologies. It has to be dark before things can get brighter.

I'm anticipating this story to be either four or five chapters. We've still got a way to go.

Happy holidays!

-N.E.P.


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry it's taken so long for this chapter to appear. Funny thing, when you're writing full-time, working on fanfic feels like cheating on your job.

Thanks for sticking with me. Quick word of warning - this chapter's short. I'm planning on posting chapter three on Monday, but this is where the break needed to fall...

Happy reading!

* * *

The not-so-gentle buzz wouldn't let him fall asleep. After spending eight hours asleep in the car, how had Elena managed to fall asleep the second her head touched the pillow? Damon knew she'd been working long hours from the nights he'd driven past their house, her house now, on the way home from the bar, but not even the fact that she looked like hell had made him realize just how exhausted she was. The next time Russell came in for a drink, he'd have to talk with him about Elena's schedule.

And then she'd kill him.

He'd spoken with Elena's boss exactly once, and he'd been joking at the time, saying that he was seeing more of Russell than he was of his own wife—then he said he wanted Elena to have Russell's schedule soon. The jerk had taken it badly, turning around and immediately going back to the hospital. Russell gave Elena a lecture about getting her husband to meddle in hospital business that both embarrassed and infuriated her. It didn't help that it was her birthday. Or close to her birthday. She'd been working the day shift, or at least what came close to the day shift; she came home absolutely livid—demanding that he stay out of her business. Damon's comments probably just cost her the promotion that would have led to better hours and the slightest chance that they could sell the house and move somewhere without a crack house two doors down.

Everything else was fuzzy after that. He said some things. She said some things. He couldn't even remember specifics. But the damage was done. He'd walked out. By the time he'd wondered if he'd done the right thing, too much time had gone by.

She'd moved on with her life.

He'd moved on with his.

Weeks passed. She found someone to mow the lawn. Whoever it was didn't do it like he did. Instead of the careful diagonal lines he'd worked so hard to cultivate, they mowed the grass like they didn't care…because they probably didn't. They weren't the ones who re-sodded that house that had been abandoned for so long. She got someone to paint the house too. She'd hated the blue trim he'd chosen. It didn't matter if it was period-appropriate. It made the house stand out, and in that neighborhood, standing out was just asking for a break-in.

Damn, they never should have bought the house. Elena hadn't wanted it. Damon saw the promise in it, promise that neither one of them had time to bring to light. Now the house was a liability. They'd never be able to sell it, not without losing more money than they'd put into it. It didn't feel right to take it away from Elena anyway. First he made her buy a house she hated, then once she made it into some kind of a home, yank it back away.

Or maybe she'd be relieved.

He'd seen the absolute fear on her face when she was walking in the other night. Her face was pale. Her lips were taut. She fully expected to find someone waiting to hurt her…and she walked right in anyway. She'd always been too brave for her own good.

And selfless.

Just like tonight. Why else would she be sleeping on a chair when the bed had enough room for a whole football team?

An attitude like that was how they'd always been able to talk her into taking just one more shift. If she didn't pick it up, somewhere a kid might die without a trauma surgeon.

That mindset was why he'd almost never seen her.

That mindset was why he'd fallen in love with her in the first place.

He couldn't think about that now. Not ever, really. He'd lost her along the way.

Things were better this way. When they were together, they couldn't manage two sentences without fighting. Hell, the other night they argued about what time it was. They were just too broken to fix.

Someone was giggling down the hall. He'd never really thought the walls thin here. He hoped they weren't, or Stefan had gotten an ear-full through the years. He'd have to apologize. Someday. Somewhere, a man whispered back to her.

Jeremy and Bonnie.

He was almost sure of it. Caroline was too far along for that kind of laughter. It was just one more in a list of things he didn't want to deal with tonight. He grabbed a feather pillow, mounded it over his head, and tried to catch hold of impressively-elusive sleep.

* * *

The crowd at the parade was standing almost shoulder to shoulder. Did this many people even live in Mystic Falls?

"I can't believe everyone came out in spite of the snow." Damon kicked inch-deep snow off his boot-top. He'd been to the Christmas parade every year of his life—not even missing the event when he was away at college. He couldn't remember ever having more than just a dusting of flakes.

"Festive, isn't it?" Caroline bounced at the head of the group meandering down the sidewalk.

"And cold." Elena shivered just in front of him, shoving her hands deeper into her pockets. Without thinking, he unwound his scarf and dropped it onto her shoulders. She turned back and looked at him with such complete surprise, it was as if he'd slapped her. "Thank you."

"Maybe next year you'll bring your own."

She frowned. "Probably not."

"It's tradition."

"I guess it is."

It never failed. Every year, Elena swore she brought her scarf. Every year, she managed to forget it. Last year she'd accused him of stealing it out of her bag. At least this time, she knew he had nothing to do with it.

A cluster of elementary school kids rushed past them. He didn't recognize any of their parents. Stefan hadn't been exaggerating when he said the town was growing at an insane rate. If Ric hadn't reserved seats for the group in the grandstand, they wouldn't have had a chance of getting a spot to watch the parade.

"I didn't think you were going to make it." Ric waved from the center of a section of empty bleacher. Tori bounced on his lap while Bryce ran back and forth in front of the viewing area. The town wasn't the only thing that had grown. The twins were so big, Damon almost didn't recognize his godchildren.

"We had to park at city hall." Stefan helped Caroline climb onto the second row of the metal seating.

"Felt like we were part of the parade." Caroline huffed like she'd just run a marathon. Damon didn't miss Elena's sharp glance in Caroline's direction. She'd asked Caroline if she was sure she was up to the walk several times. After the last time, Caroline told her that if she asked again, Elena was going to have to cook Christmas dinner all by herself.

No one wanted that.

"Look how deep it is!" Bryce rabbit-hopped through the snow. Each time, the snow reached almost to the top of his galoshes.

"I've never seen anything like it." Elena leaned forward, grabbed a handful of snow, and tossed a loose snowball at Bryce. The little boy immediately dissolved in laughter while jumping backwards. Tori was already in the process of sliding off Ric's leg and climbing onto Elena's lap. Damon didn't know how Elena did it. Kids were drawn to her like magnets. No wonder she ended up working in pediatric medicine.

She helped Tori settle in her lap, pulling her close to her chest. "Where's Jo?" Elena tugged the scarf off her neck and wound it around her scarf-less goddaughter.

"She had to work."

"We get chocolate later." Bryce pressed his hands against an empty seat, jumping up to be a part of the conversation.

Ric nodded at his son before looking back between Damon and Elena. "Jo's meeting us for hot chocolate after her shift is open."

"At the new coffee shop? That's my favorite." Caroline chimed in.

Stefan laughed. "They know her on sight."

"Their hot chocolate is the best. It's like drinking chocolate soup."

"You have to come too." Tori prompted.

"She does." Caroline exchanged a high-five with the kindergartener.

The first strains of the band came from down the street. Everyone settled into their seats except for Bryce. He was content to stay on his feet just in front of Ric. As the band approached, Tori crept off Elena's lap and moved to stand next to her twin.

Snow started falling in earnest as the third float rattled past. Searching for candy the occupants of the float threw was impossible. By the time the candy hit the ground, it was buried beneath the huge, puffy flakes.

"How long is it?" By the time the first half-hour had passed, Bryce was finished. He was skipping to the edge of the parade route and back.

Damon nodded in sympathy. "It's longer than normal. I don't blame you, Bud."

Stefan stifled a yawn. "I think they said there are sixty floats this year."

"Seriously?" Jeremy turned around with wide eyes. "Do you think anyone would notice if we left."

"Don't you dare." Elena's voice stilled him in his seat. "This is tradition. We don't mess with tradition." Her voice choked, and she dabbed at the corner of her eye. Even while sitting behind her, Damon could tell that her chin was shaking.

"Are you okay?" Bonnie's eyes narrowed.

"Yeah." Elena gave an exaggerated swipe at her eye. "Just got a snowflake in my eye."

"A snowflake. A snowflake." Bryce spun in a circle with his arms high above his head.

"What's going on?" Ric leaned forward in his seat. No float had passed for over a minute.

In the distance, an antique firetruck stood still. Damon could hear the engine trying to choke to life. "I think they're having trouble with Old Rusty down there."

The sound of metal grinding on metal was barely audible above the impatient murmurs of the crowd. Several of the younger kids started racing up and down the edge of the street. Tori finally gave in to temptation and took the opportunity to dig for candy in the snow.

The crowd cheered when the fire truck's engine sputtered to life. It lurched forward and immediately went into a skid.

"It's going too fast." Damon was on his feet, Ric copying his movements directly beside him.

The engine slid closer and closer. The driver's terrified face was visible through the glass. He spun the wheel, but the massive vehicle didn't obey.

"Everybody back!" A voice cried out. Damon couldn't tell who. The crowd erupted in chaos as the spectators leapt off the grandstand. Jeremy helped Stefan get Caroline down from the bleachers. Ric lunged forward to grab Tori. Metal ground against metal. Damon lost sight of Elena in the stampede.

The engine slowed to a stop. Steam seeped from beneath the hood. A very shaky driver rounded the front of the truck, his face pale as he studied the damage.

"Oh god!" Bonnie's shriek shocked the crowd to silence.

Damon followed her as she sped toward the wreckage of the former viewing area. Elena knelt in the snow, ripping her coat off. Bryce lay motionless in the snow. Bright red blood puddled beneath him.


	3. Chapter 3

Every year, Elena participated in the mock disaster staged by the largest of the Atlanta-area hospitals. The chief of staff at Mercy Hospital had been in New York on the day the towers fell, and when he came to Georgia, he believed in training his fellow physicians to prepare for a disaster on a broader scale than any of them could reasonably dream could happen. Elena had never missed a drill. The past two years, she'd even served as one of the triage leads for the pediatric patients. Over eighty kids participated last time—in a simulation meant to mimic a shooting at an elementary school. Drill or not, seeing the little ones in makeup intended to show the gore associated with their injuries, more than one staff member had been shaken at the sheer volume of patients facing them.

That drill had taken every ounce of Elena's ability to focus, but she'd never felt overwhelmed.

But right now, Elena felt vastly overwhelmed.

The fire engine had connected with an area of low bleachers and spectators in folding chairs lining the street. At one quick glance, she'd tallied a dozen people with moderate to severe injuries. At least three appeared life-threatening. None of the others were as gravely injured as the little one she knelt beside.

All the others were conscious; most were able to move at least to some degree. Her godson Bryce was lying motionless in front of her, blood pooling from an injury she couldn't find. The screams and shouts and general chaos of the panic surrounding them faded into a buzz that disturbed her little more than a gnat circling her head.

"Come on, Bryce. Stay with me." She unwound his scarf from his neck. Whenever she found the source of the bleeding, she'd need some kind of bandage. The color was draining from his face as quickly as the puddle of red expanded beneath him. As much as she hated to expose him to the cold, she had to ease his coat off to find the injury.

"Bryce!" A shriek from a voice she recognized far too well pierced her ear.

Only chancing a quick glance up, Elena yelled for help. "Bonnie, take Tori. And get Caroline out of here. No one can handle her going into labor right now."

The little figure hovering next to Elena disappeared, so she assumed Bonnie had done as she asked. Elena teased the coat off, and the gray-white of bone shone visibly from a gash Bryce's upper arm. Her stomach tried to turn, but she quickly regained control. "Jeremy!" She wrapped the scarf around the wound in Bryce's arm.

"Oh god." He slid to a stop next to her.

"If you're gonna be sick, go get someone else." She wrapped the scarf as tight as she dared before looking up at Jeremy. "Hold this."

Bryce's breathing was raspy and labored. When she tugged his shirt up, he didn't guard from any of her probing, but the mottled purple skin was far more frightening than a child thrashing or screaming from pain.

First responders had made it to the accident site. She could hear a few calling in a request for multiple ambulances.

"I need Life Flight." She must have used her trauma-surgeon voice, since the EMT immediately nodded and made and immediate call for one. The young man's freckles practically glowed beneath the pallor of his face. He couldn't have been more than twenty. He was in far over his head. His eyes darted from one patient to another, clearly unable to decide who to help.

"Standard triage protocols. You've trained for this, right?" Elena took hold of Bryce's wrist and cringed at how faint it had become. "Treat the most injured first. Just get moving."

"Yes, ma'am." He shot to his feet, moving toward an older woman who'd been crying earlier but had gone quiet and still.

Bryce's breathing gurgled.

And then stopped.

"Shit." Elena felt for a pulse. Nothing. "Nope. Not here. Not now." The rest of the casualties faded into nothing as she focused all her attention on her godson.

Precious minutes ticked away.

Sweat trickled down her forehead and dripped into the snow.

"Where's that chopper?" She yelled to no one in particular, assuming someone in authority would answer.

"Snow's too thick. Can't land." Someone spoke over her shoulder. "We've got ambulances two minutes out."

Two minutes.

Did Bryce have two minutes?

Elena didn't know how long she'd been doing CPR, but from the ache already spreading into her arms and across her upper back, it had been a while. Sirens wailed in the distance. Sirens. More than one. She'd never been so relieved to hear a group of ambulances heading her way.

"We can take over from here." A hand associated with the voice from earlier took hold of her shoulder and gave a not-too-gentle pull.

"Like hell you are." Elena didn't even break the rhythm she'd established.

"Ma'am." He had that trying-to-be-polite while also implying she didn't know what she was doing tone to his voice that she'd heard countless staff at her hospital use. The hand tugged harder at her refusal.

"Leave her alone." Damon interrupted the next attempt. He was using the voice that generally proceeded breaking up a fight at the bar. "She's a doctor."

The ambulance came to a stop right next to her, and the paramedics eased Bryce onto the stretcher. Without looking away from her patient, the doors slammed shut; they were on their way.

* * *

The emergency room was filled with the buzz of energy Elena associated with everyone being in over their heads—never a good sign. Staff members ran through the corridors, meeting the first of the two ambulances that had arrived.

Elena only stopped her chest compressions for an instant…to lock eyes with Jo.

Jo's eyes widened as anything she was about to say caught in her throat. Another doctor that Elena didn't recognize stopped alongside Jo, his lips moved in a silent prayer. The paramedic that had ridden in the back of the ambulance with them saved Elena from having to run through the list of Bryce's injuries.

Two more patients arrived.

The doctor standing next to Jo craned his neck to the ambulance bay. "How many more?"

"Three." A paramedic answered. "All critical."

"Seven critical patients? We're not staffed for that." The older doctor came to Bryce's side. "We're not skilled to handle him."

Jo found her voice. "Elena can. She's a trauma surgeon – specializing in pediatrics."

"You're joking." His eyes widened. "Can you step in?"

Elena nodded. "Just show me where to scrub in."

* * *

Surely this was all a dream. Any minute now, Damon would wake, discover he'd just eaten too much lasagna, and roll his eyes at his over-active imagination. If it was a nightmare, it was a detailed one. It felt like he'd been sitting in the hard plastic chair for over five hours now. Ric had gone from as close to hysteria as Damon had ever seen to complete quiet, now he'd been gone for close to ten minutes—trying to get some kind of update on Bryce.

It had to be a nightmare, didn't it?

But Damon wasn't sure if his subconscious could come up with something as twisted as the day's events. He certainly couldn't have pictured watching Elena in action.

While completely focused on Bryce, she calmly shouted orders to those around her, paying no attention to the spreading crimson stain in the snow beneath her or the fact her jeans were slowly transforming to almost black with the damp. To everyone else, she was the picture of complete confidence. Damon saw the complete terror lying beneath the surface. He doubted even Caroline or Jeremy noticed. But Damon did. He saw the way the skin at the corners of her eyes was pulled too taut. The slightest tremor shook her body when Bryce stopped breathing. Of course, he'd seen this version of Elena before. She'd been lying on a sheet of white. One second he'd been teasing her as she complained about the cold gel being applied to her stomach and the next she looked at him with terror he didn't comprehend.

At least he didn't understand it until later.

Then his ears were ringing like he was listening to a seashell. His whole world seemed fuzzy and out of sorts. Elena didn't look at him the entire drive home. Honestly, he wasn't sure if she looked at him again the rest of the weekend. She'd just completed her required few days' rest her doctor had ordered, then she got dressed like it was any other day, and they never said another word about what had happened.

She'd turned to look at him that morning before she left for the hospital. Her eyes were too bright, and the muscles in her shoulders seemed stiff. Just as she'd opened her mouth to finally say something, he'd turned away from her.

God, he'd do anything to have that moment to do over again.

That's when he knew this wasn't a dream or a nightmare. Because either way, he'd have gone over to her right then, gathered her up in his arms, and they'd have cried together for what they'd lost.

The clock kept ticking—a monotonous sound when it was the only noise in the room. Sure, he and Ric weren't the only pair waiting. Somewhere, hospital staff members were doing an excellent job keeping the press away. They were here; he'd seen on his single excursion out of this room during the last five hours. For now, it seemed to be just them and the clock. Waiting. Noticing every single second as it passed.

Waiting turned to numbness. Numbness was a feeling he'd experienced more than enough of over the past few months. He'd gotten to where he didn't even mind it anymore. Numbness was better than pain.

Or at least he thought it was.

Seconds turned to minutes. Minutes slid into hours. One hospital volunteer left. Another took her place. A surgeon came to the doorway, but he wasn't there for Ric. No one came for him—not even to give updates.

After more hours than he cared to count, they were the only people in the room. At that point, they didn't even hear the shuffles of people trying to be quiet or the squeaks of others waiting's chairs. The near silence, punctuated only by the clock, the quiet was deafening.

"You awake?" Ric poked him in the arm. Damon had been so lost in his thoughts, he hadn't noticed Ric coming to sit next to him.

"Yeah. Just…thinking." Damon thought that was the safest answer. "How's Bryce? You find out anything?"

Ric pursed his lips and gave a faint shake of his head. "Not much. Just that he's in surgery. They said not to worry. Best surgeon around was working on him." He leaned forward, held his head in his hands, and began to massage his temples. "I can't find Jo or Elena. Gotta feel sorry for the surgeon with those two lurking in the OR."

"I wouldn't cross either of them." Damon stood and stretched his back. He reached for the cup of coffee the volunteer had prepared hours earlier. Cold coffee swirled in the Styrofoam cup. It was better than nothing. He finished the drink in three swallows.

"How'd you manage to get away from the bar for a week? Didn't you say you were having trouble with your manager? You left him in charge?"

Damon sputtered, regretting the timing of the question. A heavy weight settled in the pit of his stomach. "You really want to do small talk right now?"

"Better than watching the clock. Aren't you here to distract me?"

"You heard Stefan?"

"He wasn't exactly being quiet."

Damon wiped his palms on his shirt as he sat down. Even a mere mention of the bar was enough to make him sweat these days. "I closed it for a week."

"You closed the bar for Christmas." Alaric sounded like he was a mixture of stunned and impressed. His eyes looked at Damon like he'd just announced he'd been abducted by aliens.

"I don't think you're working tonight, are you?"

Ric cocked his head to the side, raising his eyebrows. "My son's in surgery. And Matt's totally capable of taking care of the Grill. On top of that, not many people are at a bar at 4 a.m. What's your excuse?"

It would be easy to say that he'd decided to give his employees time off for the holidays. Or he could invent a non-existent repair or remodeling job. But given the fact that Ric knew him better than any other human on the planet, Damon suspected any lie would fall flat.

"Construction's killing us. With the sidewalk closed for months, we lost the foot traffic we had. Can't get through the intersection, so no one's going out of their way to drive to the bar—not in that neighborhood." He let out a sigh. "Believe it or not, being closed for a week will save me money."

"That bad, huh?"

"Yep."

"Didn't Elena say something about the neighborhood before you bought the place?"

"Something she liked to remind me about with annoying regularity." Damon wished he could take back those words. A spark of a question lit in Ric's eyes. He'd said too much…damn his lack of filter.

Ric turned his former-history-teacher questioning skills on him. "And what does she say you should do about it now?"

"She doesn't know."

Now Ric's eyes widened in real surprise. "You haven't told your wife you're bleeding money?"

Damon wanted to correct him. Saying that a business was bleeding money sounded so desperate. Too desperate for him. Still, it was true. "She's been busy."

"What are you going to do about it?"

Now they got to the punch line of the whole experience. Damon had spent hours in meetings the day he left. Even he couldn't fully grasp the irony. "The city's offered to buy it. Their engineers measured incorrectly. Apparently they need exactly one additional foot of land in order to complete the intersection…land currently occupied by my bar."

"You're going to sell? You said that was your dream."

"Yeah." Damon swallowed. "Well, I've given up on a lot of dreams lately."

That stunned Ric into silence. Now Damon was certain he'd said too much, but it honestly felt good to get it off his chest—even if Ric didn't have a clue what he'd meant. This year, Damon had excelled at giving up on things he'd thought was important to him. The papers he'd seen tucked inside Elena's overnight bag proved that.

He'd given up on his marriage.

He'd given up on having a family.

Giving up on his bar didn't seem like such a loss.

Ric blinked at him like he was still waiting for the punch line. Damon didn't have one. His best friend shifted forward in his seat, moving into Elena's-guardian-mode.

"Ric?" Jo's voice caught them both off-guard. Ric shot to his feet, his conversation with Damon forgotten—hopefully permanently.

"Bryce?" Ric only managed to stutter out the single word.

Jo nodded, tears forming in her eyes. "He's going to be fine. Really. Elena's still back there with him." She swept her hair back from her face with her fingertips. "He's going to be okay."

Ric rushed forward and caught Jo just as she dissolved into tears. He rested his chin on her shoulder, and Damon felt uncomfortable witnessing such a moment of raw emotion. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned away from the pair.

"It was a long surgery. There was just…so much damage. But the snow actually may have saved him. It gave him some cushion from the wheels." Jo choked again.

"But he's going to be alright?" Ric's eyes were still filled with concern.

"Yeah." She gave an exhausted smile. "He had the best surgeon we could have asked for."

"And I'll bet Elena nitpicked every move that surgeon made." It was the fatigue talking…not Damon. But he could just picture Elena standing in the surgery suite, offering advice. Surgeon or not—he couldn't believe they'd let her stay back there with him. Even Jo hadn't been allowed to watch.

Jo couldn't have looked more surprised if he'd slapped her. "Damon, Elena was the surgeon."

Now it was Damon's turn for surprise. "She what?"

"This hospital only has two trauma surgeons on staff. We had three patients who needed immediate surgery. Of course the chief of staff let her do Bryce's surgery. Do you know the reputation she has?" Jo blinked at him. "I don't know if anyone else could have saved him."

Damon should have had an answer for her. Sadly, he didn't.

"I do need your help with her now, though." Jo was still looking at him with outright astonishment. "She's refusing to leave."

"That surprises you?"

"After doing a sixteen-hour surgery completely on her own, yes." Jo's words were laced with anger now. "I need you to convince her to leave and get some sleep before she becomes a patient too. Maybe see if she'll eat something along the way."

"I'll see what I can do."

It had been a while since Damon had visited Elena at her hospital. Walking into the recovery room felt totally foreign. Staff members he didn't know circulated around beds of patients he didn't recognize. At the far end of the room, Elena stood with her arms crossed—glaring at a monitor.

"How's he doing?" Elena startled at the sound of his voice. Damon studied his godson. He'd never seen that many tubes and wires on a single person, not to mention a five-year-old. God, they must have come close to losing him.

Elena rubbed her eyes with the back of her wrist. "His oxygen levels are a little lower than I'd wanted, but they're within acceptable limits. We let him come off a little of the sedation when we first brought him out. He squeezed Jo's hand." She massaged the back of her neck and winced, reminding him of why he'd been sent back in the first place.

"Jo said I needed to take you home."

"I'm not driving back to Atlanta tonight."

Damon tried not to laugh. She really was exhausted. "I think she meant Stefan's house."

"Oh. Yeah." She smoothed a clump of Bryce's hair off his forehead. "That makes sense."

"I'm pretty sure she's going to get security involved if you don't come willingly."

Elena took one more look at the monitors. "He's stable." She glanced his direction. "If something happens, you'll drive me back?"

"In a heartbeat."

"Then we can go." She walked to the nurses' station and had a short conversation with one of the women behind the desk while jotting something on a notepad before walking back to Damon. "I just wanted to give them my cell phone number."

"Of course you did."

"What was that supposed to mean? I'm not on staff here. If something happens, and they need to get ahold of me, I don't need them playing the telephone game with half of Mystic Falls." She took the kind of slow breath he'd become far too familiar with over the year and changed the subject. "How's Tori doing?"

"I hope she's asleep now."

"I meant earlier." Elena snapped in response.

"I talked to Caroline on the phone. Stefan took Tori shopping for an extra Christmas present for Bryce. Then Bonnie came over to make cookies. She's doing okay." Damon stepped forward and opened the door to the waiting room. He waved to Ric and nodded to Jo as he steered Elena by the elbow through the room. "Do you want to grab something to eat?"

"This is Mystic Falls. I don't think anything's open. I'll just grab some cereal or something when we get to Stefan and Caroline's." With each step she took, he could see the energy draining out of her. She must have been operating on pure adrenaline.

"We can probably manage something better than cereal." He held up a hand before she could interrupt. "No eggs. I remember." He tried to remember what he'd seen in the fridge at the boarding house. "I might be able to manage waffles. I know they have oatmeal."

"I haven't had oatmeal in forever."

"Because you always make it too lumpy."

Even her laughter sounded tired. "I just don't have the patience for it."

"You can do a sixteen-hour surgery, but you can't wait for water to boil for oatmeal."

She shrugged a shoulder. "It's a gift."

"So it's decided. I'll make you oatmeal when we get back to the house."

"With cinnamon?"

"And nutmeg if they have it." Damon slid behind the driver's seat and waited for Elena to fasten her seatbelt. The snow had continued to accumulate over the last few hours. Driving back to the boardinghouse was going to be a challenge. If he wasn't careful, they'd end up as the hospital's next patients. He gripped the wheel so tightly his hands ached, and the stream of nervous chatter Elena initially started fell quiet. When they finally pulled into the circle drive, the front porch light snapped on immediately. Stefan stepped onto the front porch.

"Were you waiting for us?"

"Ric sent me a text. Said you were on your way." Stefan stared at the passenger door that was staying closed. "How was the drive."

"Pretty soon, Santa's going to be the only one getting anywhere in this town." Damon opened Elena's door skeptically. She wasn't just waiting for him to be a gentleman. She was sound asleep. "Elena," he tapped her shoulder. "Elena."

"She's out cold."

"Looks that way." Damon reached across her, unbuckling her seatbelt. When she didn't stir, he lifted her out of the car and kicked the door closed behind him. Stefan held the front door open. Damon tried not to make too much noise stomping the snow off his boots before carrying her up the stairs and tucking her into bed, still in her borrowed hospital scrubs.

Oatmeal would have to wait.


	4. Chapter 4

Elena gave the mattress a gentle pat as she smoothed the sheet down over Bryce. Without looking up, she could feel three sets of worried eyes turned her way. "My initials look great."

"What?" Her godson gave his first giggle since the accident.

"My initials." She pointed down close to his hip. "All surgeons leave them. It's kind of like a signature for when we're especially proud of our work."

Elena glanced up, happy to see a hint of a smile on Jo's face. Even after Bryce seemed to be in the clear, her friend hadn't seemed to relax in the slightest. As far as she'd been able to tell, Jo was still blaming herself for agreeing to take an extra shift at the hospital instead of accompanying the family to the parade. No one had been able to convince her otherwise. But Elena knew the truth—nothing would have stopped Bryce from jogging after the candy—and Jo didn't need the memory of Bryce lying almost lifeless in the snow.

That image was all Elena could see when she closed her eyes.

"Mom?" Bryce shifted up onto his elbow, looking to Jo for confirmation.

Jo grinned. "Only the best surgeons leave their initials."

"You didn't." Bryce threw off the sheet and tugged up the hem of his hospital gown. His eyes widened at the bandaged area before he stared at Elena in shock. "Will they always be there?"

Alaric's laughter ended the fun.

Bryce looked between the three adults surrounding his bed before collapsing in apparent relief. "You didn't really…"

"Nope." Elena smoothed the sheet one more time. "No initials. But everything really is healing well. You'll be home before you know it."

"By tonight?"

Elena forced a cheerful grin. "Santa may have to make a stop at the hospital this year."

"But—" His lip started to quiver, striking Elena in the gut. He hadn't complained a single time since the surgery. Hearing that he'd have to spend Christmas in the hospital was what pushed him over the edge. A tear formed in the corner of his eye, and he rapidly blinked it away.

"Santa won't forget to come." Thankfully, Alaric answered Bryce, saving Elena. His voice was thick and unusually rough. "If your doctor says it's okay, we can even bring a little tree to put on the table over there." He pointed at the table already covered by a number of get well cards and balloon bouquets.

A knock sounded at the door before Elena could answer. She turned to see an unfamiliar man wearing a white jacket leaning into the room.

"Do you need something Doctor Price?" Jo looked at her boss in surprise. Elena didn't blame her. Once Bryce had been injured, Jo had immediately taken a week's vacation.

Dr. Price leveled a finger in Elena's direction. "I just need to talk to her."

Elena's stomach dropped. She'd been waiting for this. Even though she'd been asked to do the surgery, part of her was still waiting for some type of meeting where she'd be reprimanded for performing a surgery at a hospital she had no official relationship with. "I'll see you later, Bryce."

"Bye Elena." By the sound of his voice, he was already falling under the spell of the new hand-held game that Alaric had been ordered not to buy for him but somehow ended up on Bryce's bedside anyway.

Elena followed Dr. Price into the near-empty corridor. With less than twenty-four hours until Christmas, all the patients who could safely be sent home were gone, leaving the pediatric ward oddly quiet. Only one nurse, a few aides, and the unit secretary seemed to be staffing the area. As Dr. Price walked past the nurses' station, Elena thought she felt sympathetic glances being cast her direction.

The muscles in her neck immediately grew tense. She hadn't been subject to any kind of disciplinary action since…she paused…she'd never been subject to a disciplinary hearing. Her boss back home was going to be furious. But she didn't regret her decision. If she hadn't been there, her godson wouldn't be in the hospital bed right now. Alaric and Jo would be planning a funeral instead of trying to figure out how to smuggle a Christmas tree into his hospital room.

She wouldn't do anything differently.

Dr. Price stood next to the staff elevator, pressing the button to go down. He wasn't a big man, and he wasn't overly intimidating—not like the chief of staff back in Atlanta. Still, there was something about him that made her feel the gravity of the situation. Would a little small talk kill him?

The elevator door opened with a soft ding, and he stepped inside. Elena followed. It smelled like fresh paint, and the carpet looked new. "Part of the remodel?" She couldn't help it. Even if he didn't want to talk, she couldn't stand the silence.

"Yes." He looked around the elevator, nodding. "Almost this whole wing is new."

That explained the monitors in Bryce's room. Very high-tech. The med students would drool if they got a chance to work with them. The equipment Elena worked with on a day to day basis was considered dated at best. More realistically, most of it would probably be described as out of date.

The doors opened almost silently, and Elena followed Dr. Price into a hallway she'd been down once before. If she turned right, she'd be close to Jo's office, but they continued going straight. At the very end of the hallway, Dr. Price paused in front of a closed door. He opened it and waved Elena in first. "After you."

He didn't speak until he was settled in the chair behind his desk, and Elena was seated in a lime green leather chair that was so out of date it might actually be new. He sighed before folding his hands together, his index fingers pointing toward the sky. "I need to talk to you about the surgery on that patient."

"Doctor Price, I really didn't have a choice."

He held a hand up, signaling her to stop talking. "I'm not here to reprimand you, if that's what you're thinking." He shook his head, giving a deep laugh. "Just the opposite. I've talked to a few people who were in that room with you. They all agreed they weren't sure if anyone else could have saved Bryce." He leveled his eyes at her. "And I'm awfully fond of that little guy."

"So am I."

Dr. Price interrupted before she could continue. "I'm fond of all the children in Mystic Falls. All the rest of the residents too, for that matter." He paused, shifting forward in his chair. "If I'm not mistaken, you grew up here. Isn't that right?"

"Yes." Elena nodded, a wave of nostalgia trying to wash over her. "In fact, this office used to belong to my dad."

That surprised the chief of staff. He cocked his head to the side and blinked. "I didn't make the connection. But now it makes sense. Of course Grayson Gilbert's daughter would become the best trauma surgeon I've ever seen in action."

"You…saw me?" Now it was Elena who was caught off-guard.

"Only briefly." He pulled a pair of reading glasses from his jacket pocket and placed them on the bridge of his nose. "It was busy here yesterday. I haven't worked trauma in a while, but when we're overwhelmed, no one has a day off."

Elena fought the desire to laugh. She couldn't picture Russell pulling a shift in the OR. He was too fond of his paperwork and schedules and budget to be bothered by something like actually practicing medicine. "That's impressive."

"Mmm hmm." He nodded again, distracted by something on the paper he held in front of him. "From what Jo tells me, you've been gone almost ten years."

Elena did the math in her head. "Something like that."

"The population here has doubled in that length of time. We're the new hot place to live, apparently."

"Yeah, I remember Stefan saying something about that." He'd found it so funny that he sent the a copy of the article to them through the mail. Her heart had stopped in her chest when she saw the legal-sized envelope, certain that it contained the papers that now resided in the side pocket of her overnight bag.

"And I'm sure you've noticed the expansion at the hospital."

"Hard not to. Not with how hard it is to find a parking place around here." Riding a golf card from the remote parking lot through almost six inches of snow was far from Elena's favorite way to get to work. Of course, if she worked here, she'd have one of the coveted parking passes that hung from Jo's rear-view mirror.

He stacked the papers in his hands. Elena had to wonder what was so engrossing that he kept glancing away during their rather odd discussion. Finally, he cleared his throat and slid the entire stack to her. "The population growth is causing issues for us here. We had an independent audit done." He frowned. "We didn't fare as well as we'd expected. The auditor found one major issue—we don't have anyone skilled in working with pediatric trauma. Not at the level we need for a community as large as ours." He glanced down at the report. "You can look it over."

Curious, Elena took hold of the stack of papers. She tried to mask her confusion. "Are you wanting my suggestions?"

"I'm wanting you to come work for me." He didn't try to couch his offer in any type of pleasantries. His steely gaze locked on hers. "When I came here, I said I'd make this hospital competitive with any other one in the country. I've succeeded. Except in one area." His index finger tapped the paper work. "I need you—not someone like you. You. And I have the feeling you'd like to be close to Jo's kids."

Elena sat frozen by shock. When she could finally move, she glanced down at the pages he'd handed her. The audit. The one that identified the need for someone who could do her job. "I don't know what to say."

He stood up, reached across the desk, and held out his hand to shake hers. "Don't say anything now. Go home. Enjoy Christmas Eve. You'll be here a few more days, right? Get in touch with me then. Or wait until New Year's. I don't mind waiting."

And with the handshake, the unexpected meeting was over.

* * *

Damon sat in the chair closest to the hearth, swirling his glass of scotch. He wasn't sure when Stefan stopped keeping whiskey in the house, but he'd remember the lack of his favorite beverage for next time.

What next time?

It was hard enough to be here now, listening to the happy buzz in the kitchen. Caroline and Stefan were laughing at something Bonnie had said. Jeremy teased his wife, but Damon couldn't quite make out the words. From the sound of things, even Elena was joining in.

He hadn't seen her smile in too long. Probably months. Definitely not until she was back home here with her friends and family. Their friends and family. The people who'd definitely make certain he knew just how disappointed they were to hear that he and Elena hadn't been able to keep going. She was right.

Damn, she was always right.

No matter how much he'd wanted to get the whole divorce thing out in the open, it would have cast a chill on the celebration. Even if he hadn't wanted to step on her heels tonight in the kitchen, he had to admit he was enjoying himself…despite being fully aware this was all pretend.

When he'd slid his arm around her waist walking into the dining room, the act was so warm. So familiar. If he closed his eyes, he could easily pretend it was a year ago when the whispers he tickled into her ear weren't meant for polite company instead of just being yet another act of camouflage. They even seemed to be tricking Caroline now. Or maybe everyone else was trying too hard to keep Ric and Torey distracted, so they didn't have time to pay attention to what might be going wrong between him and Elena.

"Hiding in here so you don't have to do the dishes?" At some point over the last few minutes, Ric had appeared in the room. Damon hadn't noticed.

"I thought you were on Torey-duty." Damon needed to get Ric out of the room. If anyone was going to see through his act, it would be Ric.

Ric poured a glass of scotch for himself, but didn't move to settle into a seat on the couch. "Nope. Elena's got her. They're playing with Play-dough."

"I thought she'd like that. That's why I got her the multi-pack."

"You both did." Ric's eyes fixed on Damon's with a look he couldn't quite decipher. "You each gave her the exact same gift. Just like you both gave Stefan the same headphones."

Damon attempted a laugh. "Next time we'll have to shop together and not just talk about what we're getting everyone."

Ric wasn't buying it. He could tell by the rigid posture of his friend's back and the way he clenched his hand around the tumbler. "Why don't you come outside with me? I have something I need help getting out of the shed." Ric's voice said turning him down wasn't an option.

Damon turned back toward the kitchen. Stefan and Caroline didn't own a shed.

"Are you coming?" Ric's voice was more stern…more like what Damon imagined he probably sounded like when he was teaching high school history.

Damon down the last few swallows of his drink and placed it on a coaster on the table next to him. He slowly stood, feeling more like he was headed to a date with a firing squad than heading to a chat with his best friend.

Ric didn't say anything until they were outside.

Far outside.

When Ric walked out from under the covered patio, continued beyond the row of cars parked in the circle drive, and headed to the tree line; Damon was thankful the snow had finally stopped. Now the moonlight reflected off the white blanket, giving everything the glow he'd typically expect of an early morning. With the bright stars shining in the velvet-black sky, it was almost romantic. When they last lived here, he'd have taken Elena's hand and pulled her outside. They would have sat on the back of her car, watching for a falling star…or maybe not watching anything at all.

That was then.

Now Damon suspected he was about to have the singular conversation he didn't want to have, especially not on Christmas Eve. When Ric was so deep in the woods, no one would hear them—not even if the conversation turned into more of an argument than a discussion, he finally turned back to face Damon.

"Were you planning on telling us?" Ric definitely sounded like a protective guardian and not a best friend.

"Telling you what?"

Ric frowned, looking far older than Damon had ever seen him. "Don't try to deny it. When Bryce got hurt, she yelled for Jeremy—not you. Tonight, she practically hit the ceiling when you touched her shoulder." Ric waited for Damon to deny it, but he couldn't. In fact, he was surprised at the way an invisible weight seemed to slide off his shoulders. "How bad is it? You two still living together?"

"Nope." Now it was out in the universe. Somehow it seemed fitting. Ric was the first person Damon told when he was planning to propose to Elena. And he was the first person who knew that the marriage was over. Definitely not the kind of full circle he'd ever planned.

Ric took a deep breath and scrubbed the stubble on his chin. "Promise me you didn't cheat on her."

Damon felt himself bristle. "You know me better than that."

"I thought I did." Ric looked at him without blinking, his hand balled into a fist at his side. Damon had the strong suspicion that if Ric had believed Damon was lying to him, he'd be lying in the snow right now after getting intimately acquainted with Ric's right hook. "Of course, I also thought the two of you were made for each other."

"Sometimes…things just don't work out."

"What happened?"

Now it was Damon's turn for the long breath. He'd asked himself the same question more sleepless nights than he liked to admit. As much as he wanted to pretend he didn't know, that would be a lie.

"Damon?"

"The baby was due tomorrow." God, he didn't expect to choke up just saying the words. "We laughed about the timing. I mean, what kid wants a Christmas birthday? I'd driven her crazy—coming up with every Christmas name you can imagine. Like the planning was her fault. One day, she slipped and fell leaving work. She got checked out. Everybody said she was fine. I think…I think she knew. She asked me to go to the doctor's office with her. She never did that." Damon tried to stop, but once he got started, the words kept flowing…words he should have said to Elena, but he was saying them to Ric instead. "No heartbeat. Her doctor said it wasn't her fault. Sometimes things just go wrong. But something broke that day. We broke that day. Neither one of us knew how to fix it."

"So you just left?"

"It was better than arguing all the time." That's what Damon kept promising himself.

"And that's why she doesn't know about the bar."

"Yep."

"Is it final yet?"

Damon pursed his lips and stared down at his shoes. He dragged a toe through the almost pristine snow. "Not yet. But I think Elena has the papers with her. Knowing her, she's planning on giving them to me for Christmas."

"Because she thinks you want it?"

"Because I know she does. Even if she doesn't say it." And then it would be done. He still didn't know what to do with himself. He hated the idea of starting over, but he couldn't see himself staying in Atlanta. The idea of running into her at their favorite coffee shop or the grocery store or just the gas station. He just couldn't do it.

"Have you thought about coming back here?"

"What?"

Ric adjusted the collar of his coat around his neck. He glanced to the side, staring back toward the house, checking to see if they were still alone. "Matt and I were just talking last week. I want to cut back my hours. He's wanting to go back to school. We need someone else."

"You're not busy enough for three managers."

Ric raised an eyebrow. "We're about to buy the building next door. Almost doubling the size of the place. I don't know anyone else I'd rather have working with me."

"The guy who divorced your step-daughter."

"My friend." Ric clapped Damon on the shoulder, nodding toward the house. The front door stood open, and Torrey bounced on her tiptoes. "I think someone wants to go home so that Santa can come." Ric started walking back to the house, but he turned and looked over his shoulder. "But think about my offer. You're always welcome back here."

Author's note: Well, this chapter turned into the chapter that just wouldn't end. We've had massive weather issues the last few nights, and that's when I do my writing. I'd planned to wrap the story up with this chapter, but I didn't want to delay any longer. There will be one more chapter—hopefully posted later this week. I do plan to have a short epilogue as well.

Thanks for sticking with me.


	5. Chapter 5

The faint scent of coffee drifted into the bedroom, tugging Damon from sleep. His neck gave a painful twinge as he untangled himself from the wad of blankets and knocked-over pile of pillows masquerading as a bed on the overstuffed chair.

Elena was gone. True to form, she'd already made the bed to mask just how many occupants it had held last night. She'd closed the door behind her too—no need to let anyone catch a glimpse of their sleeping arrangements and ask questions best left to any day that wasn't Christmas.

He got to his feet slowly, not wanting to face anyone this morning. After his confession to Ric, he felt raw. Transparent. The truth wasn't just close to the surface, not now. Now it was out in the open. If anyone wandered into the clearing, they might hear whispers of the impending divorce in the wind.

Ridiculous.

His mind was playing tricks on him again. Yes, he'd gone against Elena's wishes…their wishes…a low chuckle bubbled out of him. Funny that the only thing they'd agreed on in months was when to tell their family about the divorce.

Outside, wind howled but felt oddly hushed at the same time. He turned to look out the window and cringed. At least half a foot of new snow had fallen overnight. When had Mystic Falls turned into the North Pole? A Christmas Day joke was in there somewhere, but he just didn't have the heart for it.

Today was supposed to be so very different.

His eyes burned. Damn, he needed coffee.

He threw on his wrinkled clothes from the day before and headed for the kitchen, surprised when he didn't hear even the slightest murmur of conversation. Each morning, he'd been given a buffer around Elena by Bonnie or Caroline or even Jeremy. By the time he made it into the kitchen, she'd be sitting at the table, bubbling with conversation while clutching a cup of the palest coffee he'd ever seen. He used to tease her about just drinking creamer instead of pretending it was coffee.

The joke had been on the tip of his tongue even yesterday. But something stopped him. She wasn't his to tease anymore.

 _Was she?_

What even were they to each other anymore? He'd spent more time with her these past three days than in the last three months. And it was all pretend. After the divorce was final, how would they interact?

Would they be civilized? Could they manage to be in Mystic Falls at the same time? Or would he have to talk to Stefan to ask Jeremy if Elena was coming into town before he visited?

And what if he took Ric up on his offer? Would Elena ever feel safe coming home again.

His pulse thudded in his temple. Coffee. It wasn't optional now. He'd stayed awake so late last night thinking about Ric's offer, he felt like a kid waiting to trap Santa Claus. This morning he was already regretting it. He had to be sharp. If Ric caught on last night, one simple mistake could doom their Christmas. Even if it was his worse Christmas on record, he refused to spoil it for everyone else.

He took one last step down the staircase and turned toward the kitchen. Only one person was already there. No wonder he hadn't heard anyone else talking, just the low hum of the television.

Elena stood in front of the television, arms crossed, wearing a glare she typically saved just for him. What in hell made her this annoyed on Christmas morning? Her thumb slid over her phone, and she muttered curse words also generally reserved for Damon.

Was coffee really worth it?

She spun around to face him. "You're already up?"

He looked at the clock over the oven—not even 5 a.m. yet. No wonder he felt like he hadn't slept. He'd still been lost in thought at 3 a.m. "You're up, aren't you?"

"Not by choice." She slammed her phone on the counter with more force than necessary. Thank goodness for impact-resistant cases or she'd be asking for a new phone for Christmas.

"You get summoned?" It didn't make sense. She wasn't even on the emergency recall list. With traveling out of town, the hospital knew she wouldn't be able to make it in to help with anything unless they wanted to pay for last-minute airfare. Elena's boss was too cheap for that.

"Weather alert." She spoke through a too-tightly-clenched jaw, nodding toward the television.

Now he understood. A weatherman who'd drawn the short straw was standing on the right side of the screen giving people a Christmas Day forecast that was anything other than a present. A blizzard was headed their direction.

"If we get caught in that, we won't be able to get back to Atlanta." A hand reached up and twisted her ponytail over her shoulder. Her lower jaw jutted to the side before she bit down on her lip. "I'll rent a car and drive home." Brown eyes almost met his. "I don't want you to have to leave early, but I can't stay. I don't know how many people are going to get stuck. Atlanta's going to get hit too."

He almost took her up on the offer. Spending all Christmas Day driving through snow with Elena could probably describe the closest thing to hell he'd experienced in a while. But coming back to Mystic Falls had been his idea…mostly. Even after she made the offer, he could see the strain it was putting on her.

If she bit her lip any harder, it was going to start bleeding. She'd twisted her hair into a bun so tight it would make his grade-school librarian proud. Elena hated driving in the snow ever since she got into the world's most minor fender-bender after dodging hitting a squirrel making a poorly timed run across their street.

"No." He reached for an oversized mug. "Probably time for me to be leaving too." The less time he was in Mystic Falls the better. Ric knew the secret now. It was just a matter of time before someone misspoke. Maybe the blizzard was a godsend.

* * *

They were able to get on the road in record time. As if his words had been a signal to the house, within a half-hour, everyone else was awake. With a single nod toward the television in the kitchen, all the occupants of the house were part of operation get-them-on-the-road. Caroline even called a few of her mom's friends to make sure all the roads were passable before they left.

Bonnie pressed a pan of just-warmed cinnamon rolls into Elena's hands before she got into the passenger seat of the car. That's when the tears that had threatened to fall the entire trip decided to finally appear.

Not at the hospital with Bryce.

Not when she'd pulled out the oversized envelope and grabbed a pen.

Not when she'd put the final touches on her present to Damon.

When she was holding a pan of cinnamon rolls. God, she looked like an idiot. Or at least overly emotional. She knew why. At least she thought she did. She'd almost lost it once already this morning—when she'd almost met Damon's eye contact…when she'd lied to him about what had awakened her.

Yes, she'd had a weather alert on her phone, but that wasn't what chimed that morning. At precisely 4:30 a.m., a calendar reminder buzzed. She'd been ready to curse at whoever scheduled a meeting for Christmas morning when she wasn't even in town, but then her eyes focused on what the reminder said.

 _Time to have a baby._

She'd almost been sick on the spot. Before she could stop herself, the memory replayed in her mind. They'd just gotten home from her first visit to the doctor's office. Damon had been rattling off every Christmas-themed name he could think of, and he could think of a surprising number of horrible names. He'd tickled her until she'd released her phone, and his eyes gave a Santa Claus worthy glint as he opened up her calendar and typed something into it. When he tossed her phone back to her, he refused to tell her what he'd done.

He said she'd find it someday.

Why did someday have to be today?

Why didn't he delete it?

She didn't need this. Not today.

"Elena?" Legitimate fear filled Bonnie's eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Sure." She lied. She gripped the aluminum pan tighter, thankful to have something to mask the shaking of her hands. "Just a little nervous about the drive, I guess."

"Yeah." Damon's hand rested on her shoulder, and she jumped, striking her back against the frame of the car. "She had a little fender bender last year in the snow. It was nothing, didn't want to worry y'all." He held his hands up like he was trying to fend off an impending storm. "Ever since then, she's been a little iffy about the frozen stuff."

Ordinarily, she'd be angry at him for speaking for her, but she didn't trust her voice.

"Everything will be fine." Bonnie wrapped her in a too-tight hug. "When you're ready to tell me what's going on, I'm just a phone call away." Her whisper was too soft for anyone other than Elena to hear, but Elena's stomach dropped anyway. She'd tried so hard. They'd tried so hard. She and Damon hadn't been this unified in months, but it hadn't done any good. Had they fooled anyone at all?

Stefan's eyes looked from Damon to Elena back to Damon. A question hovered around him…she could see it in his furrowed forehead and wrinkled eyelids. Nope. Stefan knew too. She could feel it.

Damon hesitated, appearing frozen in the weight of his brother's stare. For an instant, she thought Damon was going to come clean.

 _Do it._

 _Please, just get it over with._

"We'll let you know how we're doing on the road." Damon nodded for Elena to get in the passenger seat. "I think we're getting out in time."

"I think so too." Caroline's voice was too bright. Not Caroline too. She reached into the car and took hold of Elena's hand and squeezed. "You two are going to be just fine." Her lip trembled, and she didn't release her grip until Stefan steered her back, away from the car.

"Yeah, we'll be just fine." Damon nodded in agreement before he dropped into the driver's seat.

And for a few hours they were.

It almost felt like smooth sailing.

Christmas morning was beautifully blue. The kind of morning Elena imagined when she'd dreamed about having the baby that wasn't meant to be. But just before lunch, an indicator light lit on the dashboard, and Damon spent almost an hour wrenching the frozen bolts off the rim of the tire before switching out the flat for a spare.

Nothing was open now. The auto club call center laughed when they asked if someone could meet them with a full sized tire. They were doomed to drive on the spare—the car barely managing 50 miles per hour as it limped along. Elena couldn't stop checking her phone. The pinkish purple on the radar image was speeding toward the blue dot indicating their current location.

"We're not going to outrun it." Elena finally voiced what they'd both been thinking. She didn't even have to rely on the weather site any longer. Now she could see the gray of the building storm out the back window of the car.

"We've still got time." Damon's words said one thing, but his white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel said something else entirely.

They weren't just contending with traveling on the spare tire any longer. Apparently, they weren't the only ones who'd cut their trip short to avoid the rare Southern blizzard. Traffic was crawling on the freeway at under 30 m.p.h. as the map they'd been following indicated a series of six wrecks in front of them.

Within a half-hour, they were at a dead-stop somewhere between nowhere and lost. This section of the drive typically breezed past in little more than a blink, but not today. Today, occupants of other vehicles were standing on the roadside, staring at the first flakes beginning to fall.

Damon gave an annoyed almost-growl as he put the car in park and turned off the engine. The fuel indicator hovered dangerously close to empty. They'd stopped for gas in the last town, but the station was closed on Christmas Day. Elena hadn't thought it would be much of a problem…now she changed her mind.

While outside the car, people milled around angrily, but inside it was strangely quiet. Damon hadn't said a word in the past half-hour. With his eyes closed and his steady breathing, Elena half-wondered if he'd fallen asleep.

If she were talking about anyone other than Damon, she'd wonder how he could sleep. Right now, it was so cold in the car that she could see her breath swirling around her in the dim light caused by the blanket of snow on the windows. Since he'd owned the bar, though, he'd developed the ability to sleep wherever and whenever time became available.

Her hands were shaking again, but not from emotion this time, now she was simply freezing. Her fingers were mottled blue, and she'd long-since lost feeling in her feet. She desperately wanted to ask Damon to turn the car back on for a little heat, but they'd need the gas to crawl down the road when the numerous wrecks cleared.

If they ever cleared. A wrecker had been spinning its wheels on the side of the road for the last few minutes, not exactly inspiring hope. Everyone back in Mystic Falls had to be worried by now. She'd been faithfully checking in with Caroline and Bonnie at the top of every hour, they'd even FaceTimed the opening of the Christmas presents before announcing that Stefan had tucked all their presents in the back seat when she'd been in the shower. Elena wanted to reassure them that they were fine. Cold, yes. Not really in any immediate danger, though, but they'd been in cell phone no-man's-land for too long.

They'd been in the cold for too long as well. She craned her neck to get a better look at the back seat. Did any of the packages look like they held a blanket or a sweater?

"You planning on peeking?" Damon cracked one eye open.

"It's already Christmas. I can open them if I want to." Elena's words came out sharper than she'd intended. That seemed to be par for the course now. No matter the subject, they couldn't carry on a conversation that didn't end up in an argument.

"I didn't say you couldn't." Damon almost seemed to flinch. "Just thought it would be better if we waited until we were home." He cleared his throat. "I meant until I dropped you off at the house."

* * *

"I knew what you meant." Elena's voice sounded so far away.

Or maybe he was hearing things that weren't there. She'd almost managed to be civil the entire car drive. She hadn't once said this was his fault, and it most certainly was. After watching the storm creeping closer to them, she'd admitted defeat and suggested they book a few nights at a hotel in the last town.

He'd been too stubborn to listen to her.

Again.

If he'd listened to her months ago, where would they be? He fought back a laugh. He definitely wouldn't be ready to sell his bar to the city for a fraction of what he paid for it, but at least he'd stop losing money on the place.

"Want to open them?" He wasn't sure what inspired the question. Cold-induced delirium, probably. They had neither the space nor the atmosphere to open Christmas presents, not to mention how long it would take for him to get little pieces of wrapping paper out of the crevices of his car, but it seemed like the right thing to do at the moment.

"Now?"

"Do you have something better to do?" This time last year, her answer would have been yes. They could have thought of any number of ways to pass the time—most of which would probably have generated plenty of body heat as well, since the windows were thickly blanketed now.

"Not really."

"Then let's do it." He blindly reached behind him, grabbing hold of the first oversized present. He recognized the handwriting. Elena's gift from Caroline. Elena took the gift from him, stared at it for a few minutes, then ripped off a corner of the paper. In no time at all, Elena was wrapped in a new oversized blanket.

"She knows I'm always cold." Elena was almost smiling.

The next gift was for him. He couldn't believe his eyes when he read the bourbon's label. His favorite. Worth a small fortune. Stefan must be doing just as well as he'd said when they'd been discussing his business at Thanksgiving.

And the presents kept coming.

One from Jeremy.

One from Bonnie.

Handmade gifts from the twins.

A gift that was borderline inappropriate from Jo. Elena blushed, speeding to close the lid on the lingerie. "She keeps asking me when we're having kids." The mood in the car turned as cold as the air around them. "I didn't have the heart to tell her."

"I know." He wanted to reach out and take her hand, but it was like an invisible wall was stopping him. "I couldn't tell any of them either." He was lying again. He'd told Ric. Just like he'd told Ric everything else. But he couldn't admit that to her, not in the small space of the car.

Neither of them had a place to run.

Only one more present sat in the back seat. Elena practically cringed when she saw it. It matched the scraps of paper he'd seen in the waste basket in their bedroom at the boardinghouse.

That's when he knew what it was.

A small, thin box. It couldn't hold much. But it could hold everything he'd wanted…or at least he thought he'd wanted.

He'd lied to Ric too last night. The divorce wasn't for Elena, even if he'd convinced himself that it was for her. It was for him.

It took the pressure away.

He didn't have to wonder when they'd work through things. He didn't have to put effort into trying to fix things. He wouldn't have to drive past their house at night, staring at the darkened windows, wondering if she'd made it home safely in the neighborhood that police wouldn't even buy a house in. Once those papers were signed, she wasn't his responsibility anymore.

Her eyes grew wide at the single box in the backseat. Her lips moved like she wanted to say something, but the words were caught in her throat.

"I guess that one's for me." He grabbed it. It was so light; he didn't have to wonder what it contained any longer. He waited for her to stop him from opening it, but she didn't say a word. Instead, she spun in her seat and pretended to look at the nothingness outside.

He broke through the tape with one fingertip. He wasn't cold any longer. He didn't feel anything. Nothing but impending dread that threatened to choke him. The box was thin. She'd wrapped it carefully…carefully enough it looked like some sort of exceptionally special gift—not one that filled him with dread. Elena's foot tapped so hard, she was shaking the car. He needed to open the box. Get this over with for both their sakes. He pulled the lid off the box and froze.

No papers. Well, not legal papers. Bright green tissue with embedded glitter greeted him. It wasn't how he'd wrap divorce papers. Maybe she wanted this more than he thought she did. He peeled back the tissue paper and froze in confusion.

Elena almost turned to face him. "It's the key to the house."

"I know."

She tugged the ponytail holder out of her hair, but she didn't finish turning to look at him. "I read the papers. I know you wanted to let me have it." She sighed, and her eyes were unfocused as she looked around the car. "I don't need it, though."

"And you think I do?" Why was he shouting? She hadn't said a word to criticize him. She wasn't asking for more money in the divorce. Hell, she was giving him the house that she'd paid for…and he didn't want it.

"Well, I don't need it anymore." Her fingers were playing with the fringe of her sweater. "The chief of staff in Mystic Falls offered me a position. I'm going to accept it. I'd like to be closer to the twins." She sounded almost sheepish, like she was waiting for him to say she couldn't do it.

 _Had he turned her into this? Where had his Elena gone? Did she disappear after one fight too many?_

Damon couldn't help it. He laughed. That got Elena's attention. She spun around to face him. "You think it's funny?"

"No. No. Not at all." It had to be the cold. It was making him delirious. "It's just. I'm moving back to Mystic Falls too."

"But your bar."

"I'm selling it. The city needs the land for the new road." He shrugged. "It's the only way to keep from going bankrupt."

"It's that bad?"

"Yeah." He nodded, a weight lifting from his chest. "You were right," he nodded, turning to face her, "you were right about a lot of things."

"Like continuing to drive in the storm?" Elena was actually smiling at him.

"Like continuing to drive in the storm." He relaxed into his seat, feeling the cold seeping deeper into his bones. He kept his eyes on Elena. She wasn't just smiling. She was shivering. He took hold of her hand. It was a cold as the snow outside.

Without thinking about what he was doing, he slid his seat back, using the last of the battery reserve. He tugged her arm, pulling her his direction.

"What are you doing?"

"Come here. Sit on my lap. If we don't get you warm, you're not going to be doing any surgeries for a long time." She still fit exactly how he'd remembered. Perfectly. As if they were made for each other. He clasped her hands in his, willing whatever body heat he had left into her. At first, she was almost rigid, but as she grew warmer, she relaxed against his chest.

His phone chimed. Did they actually have cell service? He picked it up, unlocked it, and read the message. A flood of memories washed over him. He remembered the day he'd put the note on his calendar…he'd done the same for Elena.

"The weather alert didn't wake you up this morning, did it?" His voice choked with unexpected emotion.

"No."

Elena didn't need to say anything else.

He felt like crap. He felt worse than crap. No wonder she'd been so edgy today.

The timing couldn't have been more inappropriate. Unless it was perfect. Neither of them could leave. Neither could run away.

"Elena." She stiffened before he could say anything else. "I'm so sorry."

"It wasn't your fault." A single tear slid down her cheek. "It was all mine. If I'd been more careful…"

"Shh." He rested a fingertip on her jaw, turning her to face him. "It was an accident."

"But I fell."

"What do you tell your patients when they fall? Or when someone's car gets hit by a drunk driver?"

"It's not their fault."

"Exactly." He wrapped his arms more tightly around her. "The only thing anyone did wrong was after it happened. That morning…I shouldn't have turned away from you." He tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. "I should have done this."

She stayed in his lap. They talked about what they'd lost—not just the baby—they'd also lost themselves. Back then, it had been too raw and too painful. Today, it was as if the cold had numbed them…took the pain away. Or maybe it was simply the fact that they were finally being honest.

"So what are we going to do now?" Elena spoke after being silent for so long, Damon had begun to think she'd fallen asleep.

"Other than dig this car out of a snow drift?"

"I meant the house."

Damon shrugged a shoulder. "Who knows. But it's not just a coincidence. We're both going back to Mystic Falls. Maybe it's time for a fresh start for both of us." He glanced back at her bag.

"Yeah, maybe that's what we need." Her voice didn't sound convincing in the slightest.

"Did you ever sign the papers?"

Elena gave a faint nod. "I was planning on leaving them in the car."

"Why don't you hand them to me?"

She reached into the back floorboard, digging through her bag until she retrieved an envelope. Her fingers were trembling as she dropped it into his hands. He tore it open carefully, pulling the papers out and staring at them.

"I think I finally know what to give you for Christmas." He locked eyes with her before taking hold of the top two corners of the papers, giving them a swift tug. Her jaw dropped open. "Merry  
Christmas, Elena."

"But…"

"Did you ever really want this?"

"We can't keep going like we have been."

"No." He shook his head. "No, we can't. But I think this is the first step. We've got a lot of work to do. I'm willing to try if you are."

She sniffed, wiping her nose on the back of her sleeve. "I'd like that."

A knock at the window startled both of them. Damon fought to open the car door, and discovered an older police officer looking down at him.

"You two okay?" The man carefully studied Elena's face.

"Just cold." Elena's teeth were chattering.

"Well, we can help with that. Chip's got a car that can get through this." The man used a flashlight to indicate a faint dark shape in the distance. "We've got ourselves a shelter down the way. He'll drive you there. Let's get you two warmed up."

"Sounds good." Damon helped Elena out of the car. He reached for her hand, gripping it tightly in his. "It's time to get in out of the cold."

* * *

Wow. I know that none of y'all were likely expecting this, and I wasn't either. I've actually pretty much finished the story. I'll have a SUPER short epilogue coming—probably in the next week. I'm trying for tomorrow, but I don't guarantee it.

I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for sticking around. (Reviews would be awesome to let me know that some of you are reading this Christmas-in-July story.)


	6. Epilogue

BEFORE YOU READ THIS CHAPTER, PLEASE MAKE CERTAIN YOU'VE READ CHAPTER FIVE. I posted two chapters within a day of each other, and I don't want anyone to get confused.

* * *

Damon whistled as he slid the cash drawer closed. He tugged his leather jacket free of the peg on the wall and began to put it on while walking through the office door.

"Not even five yet," Ric met him in the hallway, staring down at his watch, "you're setting some kind of record." He raised an eyebrow. "In a hurry for something?"

Damon glanced at the floor and scuffed his foot on the tile. He raised his head back up and nodded, "When Caroline says to be at their house for dinner by six or else, I don't want to find out what the else might be."

"Smart man." Ric walked alongside Damon as they made their way through the back of the restaurant. Only a few tables were still filled in the dining area. With mere hours until Santa Claus was expected, most Mystic Falls residents were gathered in family kitchens, not the Grill.

"You're not staying too late, are you?" Damon might not want to risk Caroline's anger, but he didn't want to leave Ric in the lurch either. After all, he owned the place. Damon just worked for him. The boss deserved Christmas Eve off.

"Everyone here's just about done. Kitchen's closed," Ric motioned behind them, "shouldn't be too much longer." A smile played on the corners of his lips. "Don't worry. I won't miss tonight either. Elena threatened to un-invite me for lunch tomorrow if I miss whatever she has planned for this evening." One eyebrow raised. "You're not going to let me in on the secret."

Damon laughed, shaking his head. "My wife would kill me."

"Maybe I've already guessed."

Damon raised a hand to stop Ric from saying anything else. "I can neither confirm nor deny your suspicions." He cocked his head to the side and scratched his chin. "But why do you think you know?"

"Have you looked in a mirror lately? One of the busboys swears he saw you skipping after we closed on Monday. And you were whistling just a second ago. Since when do you whistle? I know you're not about to spirit Elena away on another romantic weekend. I'm the one who writes the schedule," Ric narrowed his eyes in Damon's direction. "So something's got you in the best mood I've seen since you moved back."

"I just like Christmas." Damon didn't feel brave enough to risk saying anything else.

"Sure you do." Ric held up a single finger, nodding in the direction of a table trying to flag him down. "You keep telling yourself that. I've played poker with you for too long. I know when you've got a good hand…something tells me this is bigger than a winning poker hand."

"Elena wants this to be a surprise."

"I promise. I won't tell." Ric clapped a hand on Damon's shoulder. "Just let me know when I need to block off your vacation time on the calendar." He squeezed his fingers. "And congratulations to you both."

 _Damn it._ Ric knew alright. Based on the looks Matt was giving Elena yesterday when she'd dropped by the Grill, Ric wasn't the only one who'd guessed their secret. Damon walked out the side door, grinning to himself. Elena didn't want to tell anyone until it was safe, and he understood, but given her slight form and massive case of morning sickness…she should have known everyone who knew her had probably already guessed.

His phone vibrated in his pocket.

 _Are you on your way yet?_

He keyed in his answer before she resorted to actually calling him rather than simply sending a text. "On my way. Give me five minutes."

Damon jogged down the steps leading to the parking lot and continued walking in the direction of the sidewalk. A year ago, he owned a bar walking distance from a house he no longer lived in. A year ago, he'd gone almost three months without even speaking to Elena. Now, he lived within a five-minute walk to the Grill. And he and Elena were doing far more than talking.

He whistled _Jingle Bells_ as he made his way through the historic section of downtown. Ric was right. He _was_ whistling. That was a new one. But he was happy. Since he couldn't scream or shout or run on the slick sidewalk, whistling would have to do.

Mystic Falls had changed through the years—when the only thing Elena could eat was pho, he had three different restaurants to choose from. He was happy to say that some things had stayed the same. The houses in the older section all tried to outdo each other with their Christmas decorations. Even this early in the evening, most of the lights were already lit.

He turned the corner, and his house came into view. Elena said he'd gone for the see-it-from-space approach. Maybe she was right. But he felt like celebrating, and the "best display" sign in the front yard proved he hadn't overdone it too badly.

No matter what she said, he knew she loved it. She'd stood in the yard, pointing out extra lighting _opportunities._ When they'd finished, she'd given a wry smile and admitted the house looked even better than when her dad hung the lights on it. Damon liked to think the fairy lights outlining the swing were the perfect final touch.

Damon had to look twice when he got to the foot of his driveway. It looked like….

"What are you doing?" Damon couldn't believe his eyes.

Elena rested a hand on the top of the ladder. "Changing the lightbulb." She wore an almost-innocent expression. "You said you'd replace the bulb three days in a row." She backed down the steps. "And I was only on the third step." She waited for him to meet her on the porch, and she ran her palm over his chest. "I wanted it to be perfect for Christmas Eve. You know how many people drive through the neighborhood on their way home from church."

"I know." He folded the ladder and followed her through the front door. "But you should have waited for me."

"I was being careful."

He took a breath. "I know you were." He leaned the ladder against the wall. "I guess I'm just feeling protective." He let his eyes roam down his wife's body. It was probably just in his imagination, but he could almost swear he could see the faintest hint of a bulge beneath her oversized sweater.

"You weren't feeling protective last night." She raised an eyebrow, hooking a finger just below the collar of his shirt.

He slid his hands behind her back, pulling them chest to chest. "It was the first time in a long time that you were feeling alright." Panic washed over him. "You're still feeling alright? Nothing's wrong? I didn't…."

"Everything's fine." She tilted her head up and kissed his chin. "I promise." Her doe eyes were looking on him with their fullest effect. "I might just be feeling up to showing you just how well I'm feeling again tonight."

Heat welled inside him. "Keep talking like that, and we won't make it to Stefan and Caroline's."

She pulled away from him like she'd been burned. "Oh no. That's not gonna happen. We've been keeping this secret too long."

He almost told her that they'd kept it too long. Almost. But he knew their family. They'd play along…just like they had last Christmas. Looking back, he couldn't believe that a year ago, he'd expected divorce papers to be his gift.

"What is it?" Elena stood frozen in the hallway, looking at him in concern.

"Nothing." He wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. He hadn't been imagining it. He'd been distracted last night, but now he could feel the little bump beneath her sweater. "I was just thinking about how happy I am."

She spun in his embrace, looking up at him. "I ran into Dr. Chambers today at the grocery store."

"Really? Did she say anything?"

A nervous knot formed in the pit of his stomach. The hours they'd spent in the therapists' office were some of the most difficult he'd endured in his life. But they were worth it. And he'd repeat them in a heartbeat to make sure he and Elena never got to such a dark place again.

"She wanted to know how we were doing."

Sweat broke out on his brow. "What did you tell her?"

"I told her we were doing just fine." Elena looked as worried as he felt. "We are, right?"

"We are." He smoothed a lock of hair over her ear. "Really, we are." Relief replaced the knot in his stomach because he knew it was true. No matter what came their way in the future, they were going to be alright.

He backed away from her, reaching for her coat on the rack. "Now let's go. I don't want to get in trouble with my sister-in-law. And I'm pretty sure we have some Christmas Eve news to share."

* * *

Thanks for hanging in when updates were sparse. I'll admit I struggled to finish this story, as many of you have already guessed. I don't really enjoy leaving stories half-finished, though, so I'm thankful the words started to flow again on this one.

I've already received several messages about continuing to write here. As much as it hurts to say it, this may be my last contribution to the world of DE. Too much time has passed since I've been invested in the show. While I can't say never, I'd be doing y'all a disservice if I promised a story would be coming soon.

For now, I'll simply say thanks for sharing your time with me. I've enjoyed the trips I've taken with Damon, Elena, and the rest of the Mystic Falls family. I hope you have as well.

-N.E.P.


End file.
